Abolish Road Tolls
Letter to the newspaper:
Ross Gittins and Urban
Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher have a point (SMH): Trucks and cars should be
paying a road-user charge. That's not brave, nor outrageous, it’s a no-brainer.
The various taxes raised from road users currently are discriminatory, and that
includes road and bridge tolls.
Why are drivers who travel from the
West via freeway and keep their car off suburban streets - where they would clog
up local traffic - slugged with a charge? The warped logic is that they pay for
the convenience, whereas a straight logic would be to charge a toll for using
local streets and thus funnel traffic to the freeways.
Similarly, why is someone from
North Sydney, who has business in the city, forced to contribute up to $8 of
bridge toll (if they use a taxi) to building and maintaining the nation's
roads, whereas his colleague from the Eastern suburbs enters the city free?
The only equitable way to cover the
road costs is by km travelled and by weight of the vehicle; all other tolls
should be abolished.
SMH Illustration: Simon Letch
Feedback:
Street toll logical
Carsten Burmeister comments that "a straight logic would be to charge a toll for using local streets and thus funnel traffic to the freeways" (Letters, September 22).
This clear logic has been repeatedly put forward in the case of the Cross City Tunnel; make it free, and apply a London-style congestion fee to enter the CBD, thus unclogging its streets. This logical solution has been repeatedly knocked back by the NSW government. Why?
Larry Tofler Lindfield